"Parchment" is the word which the University uses to mean your certificate. Your parchment is an official document which proves that you have a Newcastle University qualification.
For undergraduate students completing their programmes in the summer, and postgraduate students whose names appear on a pass list in June or July, we aim to have parchments ready to hand out on the day of the July Congregation ceremony. Parchments are not handed out as part of the ceremony, but can be collected at any time during the Congregation period (9 to 17 July 2013). You will need to bring photographic ID in order to collect yours.
Students who finish their programme at a non-standard time (i.e. not June-July or September-December) will have their parchment posted to their home address 1 to 6 weeks after their pass list has been issued.
Whether or not you have opted to attend your Congregation ceremony, your parchment should be available to collect during the Congregations period. We cannot guarantee to have every parchment ready, but in the majority of cases we will have them. You can collect in person or ask a friend to collect for you. In order for a friend to collect your parchment, you should complete the form you will find here. If you do not complete this form but you want your friend to collect your parchment, your friend must bring the following documentation on the day of collection:
Parchments not collected during the Congregations period will be posted to home addresses after the Congregation period is over.
Students who finish their programme at a non-standard time (i.e. not June-July or September-December) will have their parchment posted to their home address 1 to 6 weeks after their pass list has been issued. Please remember to keep your home address up-to-date via the S3P Portal.
We send parchments by Royal Mail (inland) and by Royal Mail Airmail (overseas). We cannot track the mail we send.
We sometimes have problems with parchments reaching overseas destinations, particularly China. If your native language does not use the Latin alphabet (the alphabet used in English and most European languages), we ask you to provide a postal address in the characters of your own language. You can enter this in the Graduation Form, which you will have access to as a result of receiving the email inviting you to the Congregation ceremony.
Your name will be displayed on your parchment exactly as it appears in the University records. It is therefore important that your University record is accurate (if unsure, please check at your School Office or your Graduate School). Please note that you yourself cannot change the format or spelling of your name on S3P – you must take some proof (e.g. passport/birth certificate) to your School Office/Graduate School Office. You should ensure that we have recorded your name with the correct spelling, and that all legal names (including any middle names) are recorded. Please note that initials are not acceptable and will be omitted from your parchment unless you inform the Congregations Office that the initial is part of your name, and provide proof of this, such as your birth certificate or other legal documentation.
It is a convention of Newcastle University to print your surname in capitals on your parchment.
We will not issue a parchment to any student who has not fulfilled their financial obligations to the University.
If you have received your parchment and there was a mistake on it, please return it to the Congregations Office either by post or in person, with a covering note explaining what the mistake is, and we will issue you with a replacement as soon as we can.
Please also note that current students can access other documentation (such as transcripts of study) by logging on to the S3P Portal or by asking the School Office/Graduate School Office until the end of the Academic Year of Graduation.